Karnataka HC reserves order in Yediyurappa’s petition against cognisance of Pocso case against him | Bangalore News

Yediyurappa is challenging the cognisance taken of the case by a lower court for a second time, after a successful earlier challenge resulted in the first cognisance process being redone. A high court bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna then ruled that the initial cognisance had been done without the application of mind.

Among other issues raised during the various hearings were the repeated complaints raised by the woman against multiple senior bureaucrats and police officers. It was also argued that since the issue of cognisance was being challenged, the statutory time limit of one year for completing Pocso trials would not apply.

In a previous hearing on the matter, the court stated that Yediyurappa’s side would have to argue about whether the trial court had applied its mind properly on the second occasion. Senior counsel C V Nagesh argued that the matter had not been appropriately considered afresh by the trial court.

After extensive submissions by Nagesh, the court  summarised part of his position in an oral observation, during the arguments of the state side, “Accused plus the audio recording on one side vis a vis the statement of other witnesses – it gives credibility to the case of prosecution. But the trial court in the impugned order has not referred to that audio recording….this according to him amounts to non-application of mind.”

Representing the state during Thursday’s hearing, the special public prosecutor stated, “While going, the girl did not take her phone in which the original recording (of Yediyurappa) but only took the mother’s phone in which the complaints had come on record which was forcibly destroyed…..He (Yediyurappa) has paid money, which he has admitted in the conversation…”

The case is set to come up on Saturday for the purposes of dictation.